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Intercontinental Cup (football)
Boca Juniors Milan Nacional Peñarol Real Madrid (Three cups each) | current champions = Porto }} The European-South American Cup, best known as Intercontinental Cup and renamed Toyota Cup from 1980 to 2004 for commercial reasons by agreement with the car dealership, was a football competition endorsed by UEFA and CONMEBOL, contested between representative clubs from these confederations, usually the winners of the European Cup and the South American Copa Libertadores. Despite being chronologically the third international competition created to define "the best team in the world" after Lipton Trophy and Copa Rio due to Fédération Internationale de Football Association's inability to organize club competitions, it is considered by that international governing body as the sole predecessor to the FIFA Club World Cup, held for the first time in 2000. From its formation in 1960 to 1979, the competition was contested over a two legged tie, with a playoff if necessary until 1968, and penalty kicks later. During 1970s, European participation in the Intercontinental Cup became a running question due controversial events in the 1969 final, and some European Champions Club' winner teams withdrew.Risolo, Don (2010). Soccer Stories: Anecdotes, Oddities, Lore, and Amazing Feats p.109. U of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 29 February 2012. From 1980 until 2004, the competition was contested over a single match held in Japan and sponsored by multinational automaker Toyota, which offered a secondary trophy, the Toyota Cup. All the winner teams were recognised de facto as world club champions. The last winner of the cup was Portuguese side Porto, defeating Colombian side Once Caldas in a penalty shootout in 2004. History Beginnings Created in 1960 at the initiative of the European confederation (UEFA), with CONMEBOL's support, the European/South American Cup, known also as the Intercontinental Cup, was contested as an unofficial competition by the holders of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup and the winners of its newly established South American equivalent, the Copa Libertadores. It was the brainchild of UEFA president Henri Delaunay, who also helped Jules Rimet in the realization of the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930. Initially played over two legs, with a third match if required in the early years (when goal difference did not count), the competition had a rather turbulent existence. The first winners of the competition was Spanish club Real Madrid. Real Madrid managed to hold Uruguayan side Peñarol 0-0 in Montevideo and trounce the South Americans 5-1 in Madrid to become the first winners of the competition. The Spaniards titled themselves world champions until FIFA stepped in and objected; citing that the competition did not include any other champions from the other confederations, FIFA stated that they can only claim to be intercontinental champions of a competition played between two organizations. Peñarol would appear again the following year and come out victorious after beating Portuguese club Benfica on the playoff; after a 1-0 win by the Europeans in Lisboa and a 5-0 trashing by the South Americans, a playoff at the Estadio Centenario saw the home side squeeze a 2-1 win to become the first South American side to win the competition. But it was in 1962 when the tournament gain its prestige after it was swept through the sublime football of a Santos team led by Pelé, considered by some the best club team of all times. Os Santásticos, also known as O Balé Branco (or white ballet), which dazzled the world during that time and containing stars such as Gilmar, Mauro, Mengálvio, Coutinho, and Pepe, won the title after defeating Benfica 3-2 in Rio de Janeiro and thrashing the Europeans 2-5 in their Estádio da Luz. Santos would successfully defend the title in 1963 after being pushed all the way by Milan. After each side won 4-2 at their respective home legs, a playoff match at the Maracanã saw Santos keep the title after a tight 1-0 victory. The competition had attracted the interest of other continents. The North and Central America condeferation, CONCACAF, had asked, unsuccessfully, to participate. Milan's fierce rivals, Inter Milan, would go on to win the 1964 and 1965 editions, beating Argentine club Independiente on both occasions. Peñarol gain revenge for their loss in 1960 by crushing Real Madrid 4-0 in aggregate in 1966. Argentine violence However, as a result of the violence practiced often by Argentine and Uruguayan clubs, as well as disagreements with CONMEBOL and the lack of financial incentives, most Brazilian clubs declined to participate in the Copa Libertadores from 1966 to 1970; the 1966, 1969 and 1970 editions saw no Brazilian teams participating. As a consequence of this, Argentine clubs started to be seen more often at the Intercontinental Cup which saw many unsavory events. Calendar problems, acts of brutality, even on the pitch, and boycotts tarnished its image, to the point of bringing into question the wisdom of organizing it at all. In 1967, Argentina's Racing played a violent and brutal edition against Scotland's Celtic, dubbed "The Battle of Montevideo". 's Nestor Combin was left bloodied and unconscious after a brutal series against Estudiantes de La Plata.]] The following season, compatriots Estudiantes de La Plata faced Manchester United in which the return leg saw Estudiantes come out on top of a bad-tempered series. But it was the events of 1969 which forever tainted the competition. After a 3-0 win at the San Siro, Milan went to Buenos Aires to play Estudiantes at La Bombonera. Estudiantes' players booted balls at the Milan team as they warmed up and hot coffee was poured on the Italians as they emerged from the tunnel by Estudiantes' fans. Estudiantes resorted to inflicting elbows and needles at the Milanese team in order to intimidate them. Pierino Prati was knocked unconscious and continued for a further 20 minutes despite suffering from a mild concussion. Estudiantes goalkeeper Alberto Poletti also punched Gianni Rivera, but the most vicious treatment was reserved for Nestor Combin-an Argentinean-born striker, who had faced accusations of being a traitor as he was on the opposite side of the intercontinental match. Combin was kicked in the face by Poletti and later saw his nose and cheekbone broken by the elbow of Ramón Aguirre Suárez. Bloodied and broken, Combin was asked to return to the pitch by the referee but fainted. While unconscious, Combin was arrested by Argentine police on a charge of draft dodging, having not undertaken military service in the country. The player was forced to spend a night in the cells, eventually being released after explaining he had fulfilled national service requirements as a French citizen. Estudiantes won the game 2-1 but Milan took the title 4-3 on aggregate. Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport dubbed it, "Ninety minutes of a man-hunt". The Argentinean press reponded with "The English were right"-a reference to Alf Ramsey's famous description of the Argentina national football team as "animals" during the 1966 FIFA World Cup. The Argentinean Football Association (AFA), under heavy international pressure, took stern action. Argentina's President, military dictator Juan Carlos Ongania, summoned Estudiantes delegate Oscar Ferrari and demanded "the severest appropriate measures in defence of the good name of the national sport. was a lamentable spectacle which breached most norms of sporting ethics". Poletti was banned from the sport for life, Suarez was banned for 30 games, and Eduardo Manera for 20 with the former and latter serving a month in jail. Degradation of the competition participated, and won, in the Intercontinental Cup in 1976 as a result of a non-Argentine team not participating.]] Due to the severity of brutality in this past editions, FIFA was called into providing penalties and regulating the tournament. However, FIFA stated that they can't stipulate regulations in a competition that they didn't organize. However, with the Asian and North American club competitions in place, FIFA opened the idea of supervising the competition if it included those confederations which was met with a negative response from its participants. Nevertheless, Europeans champions started to decline in participating in the tournament after the events of 1969. Estudiantes would face Dutch side Feyenoord the following season which saw the Europeans victorious. Oscar Malbernat ripped off Joop van Daele's glasses, who scored the winner, and trampled on them claiming that he was "not allowed to play with glasses." Dutch side Ajax, European champions of 1971, would decline to face Uruguay's Nacional due to Nacional's reputation of violent play which resulted in European Cup runner's up, Greek side Panathinaikos, participating. Nacional's Luis Artime ended up breaking Yiannis Tomaras' leg in two places in the first leg as Nacional won the series 3-2 on aggregate. Ajax participated in 1972 against Independiente. The team's arrival at Buenos Aires was extremely hostile: Johan Cruyff received several death threats from Independiente's local fan firms. Due to the incredible indifference by the Argentine police, Ajax manager Ştefan Kovács was forced to appoint an organized emergency security detail for the Nederlandse meester, headed by himself and fellow teammate Barry Hulshoff, described as a big and burly man. In the first leg, Cruyff opened the scoring in Avellaneda at the 5th minute. As a result, Dante Mircoli retaliated with a viscious tackle a couple of minutes later; Cruyff was too injured to continue and the Dutch team found themselves being assaulted with tackles and punches. Kovács had to convince his team to play on during half-time as they all wanted to withdraw. Ajax squeezed a 1-1 tie and followed up with a 3-0 trounce in Amsterdam to win the Intercontinental Cup. Although Ajax were the defending champions, they decline to defend the trophy when Independiente showed up to participate once more, leaving it to Juventus, European Cup runners-up, to play a single-final match won by the Argentines. That same year, French newspaper L'Equipe, who helped bring about the birth of the European Cup, volunteered to sponsor a Club World Cup contested by the champions of Europe, South America, North America and Africa, the only continental club tournaments in existance at the time; the competition was to potentially take place in Paris between September and October of 1974 with an eventual final to be held at the Parc des Princes. The extreme negativity of the Europeans prevented this from happening. holds the Intercontinental Cup won by Boca Juniors in 1977.]] German club Bayern Munich also decline to play in 1974 as Independiente also qualified to participate. European Cup runners-up Atlético Madrid from Spain won the competition 2-1 on aggregate. Once again, Independiente qualified to participate in 1975; this time, both finalists of the European Cup declined to participate and the competition was not played. That same year, L'Equipe tried, once again, to create a Club World Cup which participants would have been: the four semifinalists of the European Cup, both finalists of the Copa Libertadores, as well as the African and Asian champions. However, UEFA declined once again and the proposal failed. Only in 1976, when Brazilian side Cruzeiro won the Copa Libertadores, did the European champions willingly participate as they disputed the cup against German side Bayern Munich, won by the Bavarians 2-0 on aggregate. In an interview with Jornal do Brasil, Bayern's manager Dettmar Cramer admitted that Bayern's refusal to dispute the 1974 and 1975 Intercontinental Cups were as a result of the antics practiced by the Argentine clubs in the past seven years. He also stated that the competition was not economically rewarding. To cover the costs of playing the first leg in Munich's Olympiastadion, the organizers needed to have a minimum of 25,000 spectators. However, the heavy snow and and cold weather prevented that from happening and only 18,000 showed up. Because of this deficit, Cramer stated that if Bayern were to win the European Cup again, they would decline to participate as it held no assurances of income. Argentine side Boca Juniors qualified for the 1977 and 1978 editions for which the European champions, English club Liverpool, declined to participate on both occasions. In 1977, Boca Juniors defeated European Cup runners-up, German club Borussia Mönchengladbach, 5-2 on aggregate. Boca Juniors declined to face Belgian club Brugge in 1978 leaving that edition undisputed. Paraguay's Olimpia won the 1979 edition against European Cup runners-up, Swedish side Malmö FF, after winning both legs. However, the competition has been greatly declining in prestige. After the 0-1 win of the South Americans in the first leg at Malmö which saw less than 5000 Swedish fans turn up, Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo named it, "the dog without an owner", and stated the poor prestige of the Intercontinental Cup as well as the low quality of the European Cup as such: Toyota Cup Seeing the deterioration of the Intercontinental Cup, Japanese corporation ''Toyota took the competition under its wing. It created contractual obligations to have the Intercontinental Cup played in Japan once a year in which every club participating were obliged to participate or face legal consequences. This modern format breathed new air into the competition which saw a new trophy handed out along with the Intercontinental Cup, the Toyota Cup. None of the violence witnesses in the bitter battles of the 1960's was seen again in this new format. Although the competition was endorsed by UEFA and CONMEBOL, since 1980 was organized by Japan Football Association,http://www.uefa.com/uefa/aboutuefa/organisation/history/newsid=3790.html The first Toyota Cup was held in 1980 which saw Uruguay's Nacional triumph over Nottingham Forest. The 1980's saw a domination by South American sides as Brazil's Flamengo and Grêmio, Uruguay's Nacional and Peñarol, Argentina's Independiente and River Plate take the spoils once each after Nacional's victory in 1980. Only Juventus, Portugal's FC Porto and Milan managed to bring the trophy to the European continent. In that decade, the English Football Association tried organizing a Club World Cup sponsored by promoting company West Nally only to be shot down by UEFA. The 1990s proved to be a decade dominated by European teams as Milan, Red Star Belgrade, Ajax, Juventus, Real Madrid, Manchester United and newcomers Borussia Dortmund of Germany were fueled to victory by its economic powers and heavy pouching of South American stars. Only three title went to South America as São Paulo and Argentina's Vélez Sársfield came out the winners, each of them defeating Milan with São Paulo's inaugural win being over Barcelona. The 2000's would see Boca Juniors win the competition twice for South America while European victories came from Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Porto. The 2004 Intercontinental Cup proved to be the last edition as the competition was absorbed into the FIFA Club World Cup. Trophy The competition trophy bears the words "Coupe Européenne-Sudamericaine" (European-South American Cup) at the top. At the base of the trophy, there is a drawing of two maps, one from Europe, another from South America. Cup format From 1960 to 1979, the Intercontinental Cup was played in two legs. Between 1960 and 1968, the cup was decided on points only, the same format used by CONMEBOL to determine the winner of the Copa Libertadores final through 1987. Because of this format, a third match was needed when both teams were equal on points. Commonly this match was host by the continent where the last game of the series was played. From 1969 through 1979, the competition adopted the European standard method of aggregate score, with away goals. Starting in 1980, the final became a single match. Up until 2000, the matches were held at Tokyo's National Stadium. Finals since 2002 were held at the Yokohama International Stadium, also the venue of the 2002 FIFA World Cup final. Finals ;Key Two-legged finals } |Old Trafford |Manchester, England |- |colspan=7 align=center|Estudiantes won 3–1 on points. |- |rowspan=3 align=center|1969 | |'Milan |align=center|3–0 |Estudiantes | |San Siro |Milan, Italy |rowspan=3 align=center| |- | |Estudiantes |align=center|2–1 |'Milan | |Estadio Camilo Cichero |Buenos Aires, Argentina |- |colspan=7 align=center|Milan won 4–2 on aggregate. |- |rowspan=3 align=center|1970 | |Estudiantes |align=center|2–2 |'Feyenoord | |Estadio Camilo Cichero |Buenos Aires, Argentina |rowspan=3 align=center| |- | |'Feyenoord |align=center|1–0 |Estudiantes | |De Kuip |Rotterdam, Netherlands |- |colspan=7 align=center| Feyenoord won 3–2 on aggregate. |- |rowspan=3 align=center|1971 | |Panathinaikos |align=center|1–1 |'Nacional | |Karaiskakis Stadium |Athens, Greece |rowspan=3 align=center| |- | |'Nacional |align=center|2–1 |Panathinaikos | |Estadio Centenario |Montevideo, Uruguay |- |colspan=7 align=center|Nacional won 3–2 on aggregate. |- |rowspan=3 align=center|1972 | |Independiente |align=center|1–1 |'Ajax | |La Doble Visera |Avellaneda, Argentina |rowspan=3 align=center| |- | |'Ajax |align=center|3–0 |Independiente | |Olympic Stadium |Amsterdam, Netherlands |- |colspan=7 align=center|Ajax won 4–1 on aggregate. |- |rowspan=2 align=center|1973 | |Juventus |align=center|0–1 |'Independiente | |Stadio Olimpico |Rome, Italy |rowpsan=2 align=center| |- |colspan=7 align=center|Second leg was not played. Independiente won single final. |- |rowspan=3 align=center|1974 | |Independiente |align=center|1–0 |'Atlético Madrid | |La Doble Visera |Avellaneda, Argentina |rowspan=3 align=center| |- | |'Atlético Madrid |align=center|2–0 |Independiente | |Vicente Calderón Stadium |Madrid, Spain |- |colspan=7 align=center| Atlético Madrid won 2–1 on aggregate. |- |rowspan=3 align=center|1976 | |'Bayern Munich |align=center|2–0 |Cruzeiro | |Olympiastadion |Munich, West Germany |rowspan=3 align=center| |- | |Cruzeiro |align=center|0–0 |'Bayern Munich | |Mineirão |Belo Horizonte, Brazil |- |colspan=7 align=center| Bayern Munich won 2–0 on aggregate. |- |rowspan=3 align=center|1977 | |'Boca Juniors |align=center|2–2 |Borussia Mönchengladbach | |La Bombonera |Buenos Aires, Argentina |rowspan=3 align=center| |- | |Borussia Mönchengladbach |align=center|0–3 |'Boca Juniors | |Wildparkstadion |Karlsruhe, West Germany |- |colspan=7 align=center|Boca Juniors won 5–2 on aggregate |- |rowspan=3 align=center|1979 | |Malmö FF |align=center|0–1 |'Olimpia | |Malmö Stadion |Malmö, Sweden |rowspan=3 align=center| |- | |'Olimpia |align=center|2–1 |Malmö FF | |Estadio Defensores del Chaco |Asunción, Paraguay |- |colspan=7 align=center| Olimpia won 3–1 on aggregate. |} Single match finals Notes * Juventus won 4–2 in a penalty shootout * Nacional won 7–6 in a penalty shootout * European champions Marseille were suspended due to a match fixing and bribery scandal * Ajax won 4–3 in a penalty shootout * Boca Juniors won 3–1 in a penalty shootout * Porto won 8–7 in a penalty shootout Statistics By club By country By continent Coaches Carlos Bianchi won three editions as coach: one with Vélez Sársfield in 1994, and 2 with Boca Juniors in 2000 and 2003. Luis Cubilla and Juan Mujica, 2 Uruguayans won cups both as players and coaches: *Luis Cubilla (played for Peñarol in 1961 and for Nacional in 1971; then coached Olimpia in 1979) *Juan Mujica (played for Nacional in 1971; and coached it in 1980) Players *Alessandro Costacurta and Paolo Maldini played 5 times in the competition, all with Milan (1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 2003). *Estudiantes (1968, 1969 and 1970) and Independiente (1972, 1973 and 1974) played 3 in consecutive years. Of these teams a few players played the three years, including Carlos Salvador Bilardo and Juan Ramón Verón. Man of the Match ''Since 1980 See also *FIFA Club World Cup *Copa Rio (international tournament) *Pequeña Copa del Mundo de Clubes *Copa Libertadores *UEFA Champions League *List of world club champions *International club competition records References External links *Official Competition website *UEFA website *International Clubs Cup – The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation *Match report from La Nación Category:Intercontinental Cup Category:FIFA Club World Cup Category:World championships Category:Defunct CONMEBOL club competitions Category:Defunct UEFA club competitions Category:Recurring sporting events established in 1960 Category:Recurring events disestablished in 2004 ar:كأس الإنتركونتيننتال az:Qitələrarası Kubok (futbol) bn:ইন্টারকন্টিনেন্টাল কাপ (ফুটবল) bg:Междуконтинентална купа по футбол bs:Interkontinentalni kup (nogomet) ca:Copa Intercontinental de futbol cs:Interkontinentální pohár da:Intercontinental Cup de:Weltpokal (Vereinsfußball) el:Διηπειρωτικό Κύπελλο es:Copa Intercontinental eo:Interkontinenta Pokalo eu:Kontinente arteko Futbol Kopa fa:جام بین‌قاره‌ای fr:Coupe intercontinentale gl:Copa Intercontinental de Fútbol ko:인터컨티넨탈컵 hr:Interkontinentalni kup id:Piala Interkontinental it:Coppa Intercontinentale he:הגביע הביניבשתי ka:საკონტინენტთაშორისო თასი (ფეხბურთი) lt:Tarpžemyninė taurė hu:Világkupa (labdarúgás) nl:Wereldbeker voetbal ja:インターコンチネンタルカップ (サッカー) no:Intercontinental Cup oc:Copa Intercontinentau pl:Puchar Interkontynentalny w piłce nożnej pt:Copa Intercontinental ro:Cupa Intercontinentală ru:Межконтинентальный кубок по футболу simple:Intercontinental Cup sr:Интерконтинентални куп (фудбал) fi:Intercontinental Cup (jalkapallo) sv:Interkontinentala cupen th:ฟุตบอลชิงแชมป์สโมสรยุโรปและอเมริกาใต้ tr:Kıtalararası Kupa (futbol) uk:Міжконтинентальний кубок з футболу vec:Coppa Intercontinentale vi:Cúp bóng đá liên lục địa zh:洲際盃足球賽